Herriman Beach

A couple weeks ago a few of our friends from West Valley came out and we all went to the new beach front in Herriman. It's little, but big enough. It was a quite day at the beach and not very many other people there, but perfect for our little group. The kids had a blast! They loved the water and learning how to build sand castles. The water was quite cold but the kids didn't mind much as the weather was quite hot and it cooled them down.
Michael would go into the water and get the wet sand to build the sand castles. Then bring it back and dump it out. It was so cute to watch him. The sand on the beach was never good enough for him, he had to go get it out in the water. They loved that the water was shallow and that they could walk around in it by themselves. This was the first time for them at any beach.
We had a blast with all of our friends. I wish we had gotten more pictures. This next one is Michael "posing" for the camera. He thought this was a cool pose.Here's Karen's pose for the camera.Thanks to our friends for coming out and having a great day with us at the beach!

Getting Better

So after 2 days of Michael not eating anything and then not even wanting to drink anything, Neils decided that enough was enough. He decided he would be the bad guy (cause I just couldn't) and force fed our son. He took a medicine dropper and some juice and teaspoon by teaspoon squirted juice into Michael's mouth and, after a couple times, Michael decided that he could do that and he was hungry/thirsty enough to tolerate it. After a day of that, we tried to give him some soft foods like broth or pudding. He didn't want to do that, he was so afraid that it would hurt his mouth. So after a while of him playing with the pudding (his favorite chocolate) and not getting any in his mouth, I sat down with him and persuaded him to open his mouth a bit and try some. After the first bite Michael decided it didn't hurt and that it tasted really good, he asked for more and more and more. After this hurdle things changed drastically and a day later he was eating just like before and trying to make up for lost time. Now he is doing just fine and you can't even tell that anything is wrong. The sores in his mouth are healing, though they are not gone yet. Hopefully by next week he will be completely over this. Thanks for everyone's concern and prayers, I know that it helped.

Life

Karen has been in school for a week now and she is loving it. She is able to sit by a couple of girls from her primary class and has started getting to know the other children sitting near her too. She loves her teacher and we were surprised to have her tell us that Karen is ready to start reading. She gave us some would parts to have her start sounding out. It's amazing to me that she is able to do it on her own. We checked out a website that her teacher recommended and it has simple stories with a focus on certain sounds. She did a really good job and loved it! She didn't want to stop. We are really proud of her and her desire to learn.

Michael got sick this last weekend. He's got a virus that causes sores in his mouth. I've never experienced anything like this before and he's having a really hard time. He doesn't want to eat or drink or speak or anything. He just lays around all day, which is very much unlike our energetic little boy. It will last for about 2 weeks and until he's better we need to keep him hydrated. Poor guy. We'll be keeping him quarantined for a little while til he's feeling better.

Kindergarten

Karen started Kindergarten today. She was very excited to start school and a little nervous. I wasn't too worried since she's had preschool for a year. They asked a parent to come with the child for the first hour of school so daddy stayed home this morning to watch Michael so I could be with Karen at school. We all went together to see Karen off and take pictures, then Daddy and Michael walked home while mommy stayed at school. Here's some fun picture in front of the school.

They have a cute playground just for the kindergartners separated from the rest of the school by a half wall all the way around. It's really a cute little playground. Michael loved it too and wanted to get in on the picture taking.
They line up along the wall of the playground when the bell rings and the teachers come out to get them to take them into class. (I blurred faces for safety)
Mommy was able to help Karen with a few "get to know you" activities in the classroom. She was excited to be able to sit by two girls that she knows from primary. There is also a little boy from primary that she knows too. There are 24 in her class and she's excited to make new friends too. I know she will love school. As I was driving home suddenly I felt a little sad. I didn't expect that, but I guess it is a big deal after all. I no longer have a baby girl, she's growing up so fast.

(P.S. I'm so excited to have a camera again!)

July

Well, July has been eventful and has kept us quite busy. The first weekend and week of July we had a lot of plans. We had something to do nearly every day, going to a couple carnivals, a parade and fireworks. We had a lot of fun (for details see Neils blog). But I lost my camera at one carnival and I've been bummed about it cause I lost some really cute pictures. Oh well, now I get to buy a new one. But I haven't had pictures to post so I haven't blogged.

Then we all got sick. The kids had diarrhea and gave it to me too. Neils luckily didn't get it. Lucky guy. That took the better part of nearly 2 weeks for us to all get better. Then we packed the kids off to grandma and grandpa's house last week and had ourselves a "stay-cation". We didn't do much, just a much needed break from the kids. It's amazing how fun shopping is without the kids. We also went to a movie, The Proposal. Can you believe Neils took me to a chick flick?!? It was a cute movie but had 2 very drawn out, very inappropriate parts in it. Definitely not for kids. We also got to go see Herriman's performance of "The Music Man". That was fun. We even saw Cindy and Zac there, that was a treat. My favorite part was going to the Salt Lake Temple. We haven't been for a long time since it takes longer to get there and it's not in our district. But since we had the time we went down there and made an afternoon of it with lunch and a session. I'd forgotten how beautiful the temple is and how fun it can be to move from room to room. It sure does put things in a different light. I also cleaned out my car! I think it's been over a year since I did a good job of it and I did a really good job of it, I even pulled out the vacuum and got all under the seats and everything. It's amazing everything I found. It was so nice to get the inside clean we decided to clean the outside too. Amazing difference and how clear the view was (though I think the wind swept out the smog that week so...).

Now it's back to being a parent again. I love my kids, but I think this is going to be a tough year for Michael. He's 3 and wants to be so grown up like his sister age 5. He wants to go to school like Karen (she starts next week), he repeats what she says and does what she does. It can be really cute, but there are something he's just too little to do yet. Then there is the other side where he doesn't want to do anything for himself and wants me or daddy to do it all for him and still be the baby. He also doesn't want to potty train. His temper tantrums are worse too. Though I hope as Karen goes to school and I have more time with him one on one that things will start to get better. I hope this is just a stage he's going through. Pray for me.